1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image printer.
2. Description of the Related Art
One conventional invention known as an image printer for exposing a photosensitive material with an image recorded on a film is as follows (Japanese laid-open patent gazette No. 63-189262).
That is, aside from an ordinary image printer for projecting and exposing a film image on a photosensitive material, a further image printer is known. In this printer, image information of a film is read with dividing the image information into a number of areas and an exposure amount is set for each of the number of areas. The photosensitive material is exposed with the exposure amounts of the respective areas being adjusted by an electronic shutter comprised of PLZT or liquid crystal elements operable in correspondence with each of the number of areas.
Different from the image printer operable through projection-exposure, such image printer described above is capable of effecting a variety of processing on the read image information since the image information is processed as a number of divided areas. Such processings include, for instance, correction of contrast or of color tone of the read image information.
However, while the above-described convention is convenient as being capable of effecting a variety of processings on the read image information, since the exposure of the photosensitive material is effected with an exposure amount being set for each of a number of areas, there tends to occur the inconvenience that the image produced through the exposure on the photosensitive material shows, in a micro view, a zigzag contour portion in one direction of the image corresponding to the configuration of the picture elements constituting the number of areas thereby to deteriorate the image quality.
The present invention attends to this inconvenience. A primary object of the present invention is to provide an image printer capable of producing an image of an improved quality after correction of the image information.